| “ | I've got a Ph.D in Horribleness! | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible's catchphrase. |
| “ | Killing is not elegant or creative. It's not my style. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible showing his honorable side. |
Billy, better known as Dr. Horrible, is the titular villainous main protagonist of the 2008 musical comedy-drama miniseries Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and its one-shot comic book sequels by Dark Horse Comics.
Despite being a supervillain, Dr. Horrible has better less serious intentions than his ironically more villainous arch-nemesis Captain Hammer. who he rivals with his crush, Penny who she ends up with and seeks to make her his no matter the cause, his second goal is to become part of the Evil League of Evil and rule the world, which he then succeeds but was devastated over the outcome involving the death of his love interest that crossed paths with his mortal opponent including himself.
He was portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris, who also played Replay in Static Shock, Ray Thompson in Justice League, John Tagman in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Fairy Shoeperson in Sesame Street, DJ Veteran Child in the Saints Row video games, Music Meister in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Dr. Blowhole in The Penguins of Madagascar, Chester Creb in American Horror Story: Freak Show, Count Olaf in the 2017 A Series of Unfortunate Events television series and The Analyst in The Matrix Resurrections.
Personality[]
Billy is described as neutral evil compared towards the story, yet being a cynical, envious, Moraly ambitious, Power-Hungry, He is also shown absent-Minded when revealing his plans on his Blogs which led him to being foiled by Captain Hammer and The LAPD who watches him, leading to being immediately recognised by His adversary for being a public Visible villain with less security of his identity, and even singing to gain confidence when trying to kill Captain Hammer. Despite shown as heinous He is expressed as a tragic individual expressed with many redeeming qualities, mainly trying to win over Penny due to his insecurities and upheld on his beliefs as viewing Captain Man as a “Corporate Tool” due to his selfish traits and the media, He is affable when letting a reporter spell his name, Having standards against killing including children being mentioned by moist even going as far as to attempt to warn Captain Hammer. He even treats his Henchmen Moist as a friend when saving him from the side effects of Captain man’s serum.
Biography[]
Before The Events[]
Back in 1986, before the events of the miniseries, there isn't much to Billy’s backstory but where shown in a flashback when he was a young boy that was bullied due to his intelligence. He was spotted by one of his classmates playing with action figures, to which the classmate asks why he is while he's in sixth grade. Billy retorts that he's only eight. The classmate calls him Einstein, and Billy once again retorts that Einstein was a great scientist and mathematician, resulting in him being punched. That afternoon, he rushed to see what the other children were watching in the streets, which led him to seeing a showdown between Justice Joe and his enemy, Mister Maniacal. The superhero then addressed a joke towards Mister Maniacal Calling him Einstein which made fun of the famous professor, disappointing Billy. However, Maniacal then pulled out a ray and used it towards his opponent successfully as Billy begins to laugh, realising he wants to be a villain. It then cuts to 20 years later when Dr Horrible is laughing, and he then explains to an individual that he inserted tiny micro-bombs inside each and every parking meter in the area (in the disguise of U.S Quarters), The individual tells him that his remote has stopped lighting up.
Realizing that his plan wasn't working, he then tries to run away. Where he accidentally crashes into Captain Hammer, who thinks that Billy was a random individual, and insisting an autograph. But upon realizing that he is a supervillain he then starts to beat him up, luckily it was cut short until hammer notices Bad Horse, and leaves Billy to set off to go and stop the Evil League of Evil (ELE), much to Billy's amazement. Upon having an idea at the Coin Wash, after watching the outpost, mentioning the death of Justice Joe twenty years ago, having been severely beaten to death by his enemy with a pipe after his ray attack. Billy took inspiration and concocted a formula which granted him the same abilities of his enemy Captain Hammer, However the plan backfired by giving him the intelligence of Captain Hammer as well, thus leading his sidekick, Moist, into giving him the antidote, reverting Billy to his normal state. Captain Hammer tries to kill Billy by throwing a construction girder at him only for it to be melted by The Trans-Matter Ray, and was thrown into a billboard. He then escapes from Captain Hammer by blowing up all the parking meters, giving him enough time to escape along with Moist, thus beginning his rivalry with the public hero. (All in the comic story Dr Horrible)
On a separate occasion, Moist was first seen during a fight that Captain Hammer and Billy were having. Billy left fliers around, asking for a henchmen. They have a talk, and Moist takes a slip from the flier with Billy's phone number on it to call. (All in Moist: Humidity Rising)
Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog[]
He is seen at the beginning recording a blog, explaining about his plans of joining the ELE, being not yet accepted by their terms. He also reveals his newly built freeze ray, as device with the ability to stop time. He moves on to reading fan mail. The first one asks about the gold bars which he had stolen, Horrible reveals a bag filled with the liquid of the gold, due to the Trans-Matter ray still being a work in progress.
Upon answering this, he then explains his view on the world, a twisted place that will only change once he rebuilds it in his image. He then reads the next letter from a lesser known superhero known by Johnny Snow, annoyed at this, Horrible states that his real nemesis was Captain Hammer. The last letter then explains from a fan, mentioning about Billy's attraction to "Her" which then points out, it then cuts to a song explaining his relationship (or lack-there-of) with the girl of his dreams and his newly built Freeze Ray.
Afterwards his friend and his own villainous sidekick Moist walks in with his mail. As he boasts about his exploits via his blog, he receives a letter from the League's leader, Bad Horse, stating (in the song) that in order to be admitted, Dr. Horrible must commit a show of force explained to him in one of the lyrics of the song ("A murder would be nice, of course"). Of course, he then fails and receives a phone call from Bad Horse saying that the only way to be accepted now is to commit an assassination.
Horrible agrees and plans to pull a heist to steal the briefcase full of Wonderflonium for his Freeze Ray. He then succeeds in taking the vehicle, but it can barely be controlled via his remote control. He stops the van eventually - just before hitting Penny - but notices Captain Hammer pushing her out of the way, landing on the pile of trash bags next to the oncoming Armored Vehicle. Penny and Captain hammer both soon fall in love and go on a date, much to the disdain of Billy.
Due to this, Billy attempts to take over the city or something, by using his freeze ray on something ( unknown ). In his own words, "it takes a few seconds to warm up", and Billy wasn't ready for Captain Hammer to attack. He gets a car thrown at his head, and finds out that Captain Hammer, as well as the LAPD watch his blog, He also finds out that the ELE had been there to see this happen or hear of the story on his blog, and give him a call stating that "now assassination is just the only way". At first, Billy is hesitant. Killing simply wasn't his style. Him and Moist attempt to think of somebody that he can kill that would be easy and get the League's attention. Moist gives out two ideas, both of which Billy shoots down, stating "Do I even know you?" after Moist ponders the idea of including Kids and violent crimes such as smothering a women with a pillow.
He then encounters Captain Hammer at the Coin Wash, due to Penny wanting them to meet, and taunts his identity to him, much to Billy's horror. Hammer explains about his plan to out with Penny out of spite and mentions the truth of why he got his name. Horrible then targets Captain Hammer and creates a Death Ray. After interrupting a press conference where Captain Hammer is speaking, he uses a freeze ray on his nemesis but can't bring himself to pull the trigger to the death ray, instead singing a song about his plan before finally going up and trying. His freeze ray makes a noise, and shuts down. Hammer strikes back, he then attempts to use the Death Ray on Billy. Billy warns Captain Hammer of the fact that it's not working, but Captain Hammer decides to use it anyway.
The Death Ray malfunctions and explodes, causing Captain Hammer to feel pain for the first time, running out and screaming for somebody maternal, as well as killing Penny in the process, much to Billy's grief. Penny's last words are about how Captain Hammer will save them. He then lifts her lifeless body up and places it at the arms of an ambulance. Although he succeeded in becoming part of the Evil League of Evil, Dr. Horrible was also responsible for the death of the girl of his dreams. Therefore, he got everything he wanted, but lost the one thing he wanted the most.
Dr Horrible: Best Friends Forever:[]
Horrible wears his red uniform, implying this takes place after the events of Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, after one of Dr Horrible's rays backfired once again and made Captain Hammer and Dr Horrible believe they were friends. He then later tracks him down, finding him giving a couple of kids a talk about sex, he then sneaks behind Captain Hammer and surprises him with tickets to a Dear Evan Hansen show. Later, the two of them later ride in the Hammer-Cycle and discuss the tickets. Just then, an alarm coming from the lab goes off, leading two of them to come and find the intruder. However, the intruder just so happens to be the villainess Hourglass. The two then agree to help Hourglass. She declines them and states she just needs a tampon.
Later, all of them had a discussion about the abilities of Hourglass's ring which gave her the ability to time travel, much to the shock of both Captain Hammer and Billy. Hourglass asks Billy if he would have a ray to take care of the timeworms that spawned when she accidentally left the time breach open. Billy talks a bit about rays that he has made, mentioning his shrinking, shrieking, Aversion-to-Cilantro, Reverse-Aversion-to-Cilantro, and a Deprocrastinizer that he hasn't finished. Hourglass then questions another ray that she spots, to which Billy answers that it was meant to make someone like someone they didn't like. Captain Hammer mentions that Billy had attempted to use it on him, but Billy explains that it hadn't worked, and only pulsed in both directions but never actually fired. Hourglass mentions that the machine is still running, but Billy talks about how it just isn't working.
Captain Hammer suggests that they just go back in time to before she opened the time breach. Hourglass explains that you physically can't go back in time. Captain Hammer says that Billy can. Next we see Billy explaining how they could go back in time with a bunch of math symbols. Captain Hammer discusses what they could do if they did go back in time, spitting out ideas such as killing Hitler, investing in Amazon, and sleeping with Michael J Fox's mother. He starts with another reason, saying "Oh my God, Doc! We could save-" and Billy interrupts stating "Penny." Captain Hammer then awkwardly lies, saying that that was what he was going to say, not save Reign from being cancelled.
Just then, the timeworms then appear and attack the lab, Hourglass then took the ring for herself, distracting Billy, who then was knocked unconscious into a metal pipe. He wakes up to see Penny floating around him in a black void and convinces him about how to save earth from the fabrication of reality. Billy talks to Penny for a while, about how going in time wouldn't work, and then asks Billy why him and Captain Hammer are now friends. Billy questions it while Captain Hammer and Hourglass fight the timeworms. Penny talks to him about all of the terrible things that Captain Hammer as done to him, and Billy realises that his machine DID work, and that's why they're friends now. Billy asks Penny for a kiss, and then Penny states that she isn't real. Billy tells Penny to "Do the thing", because it's the only thing that wakes him up from these, implying that this isn't the first - and probably won't be the last - time that he has had these dreams. Penny asks why Billy killed him, and subsequently melts.
Billy then actually wakes up, and commands Captain Hammer to pick up on of his rays and gives it to him. With the help of hourglass both defeated the timeworms with Dr Horrible's Aversion-to-Cilantro ray, and sent them back to their home dimension. Afterwards, Billy then destroys the unnamed ray that had made him and Captain Hammer friends, and reverts both of them into their original selves. Captain Hammer then "acknowledges" him for saving the world, but uses a hug as a way to pickpocket Billy and take the Dear Even Hansen tickets. Captain Hammer and Hourglass then leave, leaving Billy by himself.
He is then seen on a call with Moist who was on a heist with Fake Thomas Jefferson (while in a car with a bunch of pretty ladies) on the run behind the police. Billy tells them to "Give them hell", before hanging up. He's noticeably wearing a light green Caring Hands shirt. It seems as if he's looking at a photo of Penny and reminiscing, but it's revealed he's staring at his Deprocrastinizer. He gets up from his table, stating that he'll do it later, leaving the Deprocrastinizer on top of a framed photo of Penny. Along with the photo of Penny and the Deprocrastinizer on the table is a half-eaten box of takeout noodles, wires, Billy's phone, and a photo of Captain Hammer and Billy on a ferris wheel together.
Quotes[]
| “ | Ahahahahaha, ah ha! ah haaa! So that's you know... coming along, I'm working with a vocal coach. Strengthening the "Ahaa!"... A lot of guys ignore the laugh and that's about the standards. I mean, if you're going to get into the Evil league of evil, you HAVE to have a memorable laugh. I mean do you think Bad Horse didn't work on his Whinny, His terrible, Death... Whinny? | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible's first lines, explaining his intentions on his blog |
| “ | Look I'm trying to change the world, okay? I don't have time for a grudge match with every poser in a parka. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible to his viewers about his strategic goals on his mindset of villainy |
| “ | Too Sly For You asks: "Hey Genius" wow sarcasm, That's Original | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible brushing off the Witty trope Remark |
| “ | And by the way it's not about taking money, it's about Taking money, destroying the status quo, because the Status is not Quo, the world is a mess and I just need to rule it. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible showing his Practices of villainy and Goals |
| “ | It's a brand new day, yeah the sun is high all the Angels sing because you're gonna die Go ahead and laugh cause I'm a funny guy, Tell everyone Goodbye it's a brand new day. | „ |
| “ | That's the plan, Rule the world, You and me, any day, Love your hair. | „ |
| ~ Dr Horrible's interest to Penny |
| “ | You always say in your blog that you will show her the way, show her you're a true villain, who is her and does she even know that you're... | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible reading a fan emails hinting his interest in Penny |
| “ | It's a brand new day, yeah the sun is high all the Angels sing because you're gonna die Go ahead and laugh cause I'm a funny guy, Tell everyone Goodbye it's a brand new day. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible at the last chorus of "It's a brand new Day" |
| “ | Now that your saviour is still at the grave you're beginning to fear me like caveman fear thunder I still have to wonder can you really hear me, I bring you pain you can suffer quietly, fire up your brain remind your rioting society is slipping, everything slipping away. | „ |
| ~ Dr Horrible Imprisoning Captain Hammer with the Ray from the shelter |
| “ | Stop looking at her like that! | „ |
| ~ Dr Horrible to Captain Hammer noticing the latter has cross paths with his love interest penny |
| “ | Did you notice he threw you in the garbage? | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible remarking how Penny's overwhelming admiration to Captain Hammer cannot grasp his powerful strength launching her onto the garbage |
| “ | I stopped the Van.. The Remote control was in my hand! | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible seeing both Penny and his nemesis Hammer outside the Van contemplating being the one who halted the Van |
| “ | Any dolt with Half a brain, can see that the Humankind has gone insane, to the point where I don't know, if I'll upset the status quo, if I throw poison in the water main | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible Contemplating Captain Hammer's Letcherous hidden nature |
| “ | Go ahead run away say it was Horrible, spread the word, tell a friend, tell em the tale, get a pic, do a blog, heroes are over with, Look at him Hammer meet nail, Then I win, then I get everything I ever. All the cash all the fame and social change Anarchy that I run, It's Dr Horrible's turn. You people alll have to learn, this world is going to BURN BURN it's two r's H-O-R-R.. BURN!. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Horrible terrorising and gloating his supposed victory over having the chance to finally kill his Nemesis, at the effects of his newly built freeze ray. |
Trivia[]
- Dr. Horrible has an unofficial nemesis named Johnny Snow, (who is a parody of Captain Cold from DC Comics) who he doesn't consider to be his enemy and gets annoyed over the latter repeatedly sending emails to come and challenge him.
- Dr Horrible appears on the 2009 Emmy Awards where he hijacks the broadcast and spread his monologue until Captain Hammer intervened, but the two men attempt to fix the internet connection, but to no prevail.
- Despite making blogs about his current schemes, He wasn't considered a real threat to the public.